[rollei_list] Re: OT Mapplethorp (was Re: Re:)
- From: Frank Deutschmann <frank.deutschmann@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 15:54:25 -0500
I'm no expert on photography, or art, or especially art photography, but my
impression of Newton's work was that it was not at all negative in his
portrayal of women.
Quite the contrary, actually: the women in Newton's images are univerally
strong and confident in their bodies and sexuality; in fact, in the images,
it's usually the women who are using their sexuality as a controlling power
over the men in the frame, as well as the implied men beyond the frame (esp
viewers). I always thought this was a phenomenal commentary on modern
society. (There's a particular self portrait of Newton and his [nude] wife
where I thought he made a particularly poignant remark about himself etc in
this regard.)
Doubtless there are more than a few femminists this might be off-putting to,
but living in the NYC area, I'm confident that there are more than a few
femminists that would strongly support this portrayal, as well. Very
shallow if there is some university somewhere which was unable to see this
side of things.
-f
On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 8:48 AM, Marvin <marvin0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hello Lawrence, Newton's work was berated because of his continual
> "negative" portrayal of women. Particular the very sexual referenced
> stuff(women in red stiletto heels etc).
>
> Imagine you are in an institution and a steady stream of female
> photographers approach you armed with B.A and M.A dissertations aimed
> squarely at the likes of Newton. You would take note, they have the talk to
> go with the attitude, having read Susan Sontag, Germaine Greer etc.
>
> On top of that Cindi Sherman's work was in vogue at that time, it was very
> antithetical to Newton's and it was greatly admired by the majority of
> female photographers. The Mantra was women let's take control of our own
> images, men will just portray us as sex objects etc..
>
> On top of that the university hired a number of female staff who agreed
> with
> these kinds of ideas-and it was good night Newton and Bob Carlos Clarke
> etc.
>
>
> At one time there was a nude photography workshop, which of course was
> photographing beautiful shapely girls in the woods etc. Of course this was
> scrapped as it too was deemed politically incorrect.
>
> Buy a strange quirk of fate, Mapplethorp's images were considered Ok yet
> Newton's were considered degrading.
>
> My personal view is that the women on our course were right, and Newton's
> work was off. However, I do think that the ending of nude photography women
> too extreme.
>
> Funny, but if a women photographed a women nude it was considered ok, I
> think Georgia O'Keefe was one yet, a man doing it Edward Weston this was
> risky.
>
> Thanks for you well thought out post.
> Marvin.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Laurence Cuffe
> Sent: 08 March 2010 17:06
> To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [rollei_list] Re: OT Mapplethorp (was Re: Re:)
>
>
> On Sunday, March 07, 2010, at 06:07PM, "Marvin" <marvin0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >I am not trying be argumentative with you(before we begin Carlos).You
> >mention "Helmut Newton," his work was considered so bad, particularly the
> >way he negatively portrays women, that his books had to be removed from
> the
> >university library. If they weren't the feminists' would steal his books
> and
> >dump them in the bin or tear them up Bob Carlos Clarke's work suffered the
> >same fate.
>
> Actualy Newtons done some good. work. I would be concerned that an
> institution which removed Newtons work from their shelves for reasons of
> political corectness might consider themselves a university, it just seems
> a
> little pretentious to me.
> Laurence Cuffe
>
> From his obituary in the NYT
> "Mr. Newton received many awards for his work, including the Grand Prix
> National de la Ville de Paris and Commander in the Order of Arts and
> Letters. In October, he donated more than 1,000 of his pictures to a German
> cultural foundation for a museum intended to be a national center for
> photography. It is scheduled to open in June in Berlin. "
> ---
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